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“Well what happens when you get to the edge of the cliff. Do you take one step forward or do 180° turn and take one step forward? Which way are you going? Which is progress? The solution to many of the world’s problems maybe to turn around and to take a forward step. You can’t just keep trying to make a flawed system work.”

–Yvon Chouinard

I’ve been taking a bit of a break in February from rephotography to explore the current state of conservation in Patagonia. Right now is a fascinating time to be here as this region faces many options for future development.

The big question here and in many other places in the world is: How can a country that is faced with national and international development pressures develop in a way that respects the local environment and people while still contributing to the national economy and allowing the improvements in quality of life that the people want?

At the beginning of February I walked the Aysen Glacier Trail (AGT) with Jonathan Leidich, founder and guide of Patagonia Adventure Expeditions. He came to Chile about 20 years ago looking for a blank spot on the map and found that in Puerto Bertrand. Over the last two decades of living there he has developed a deep connection to the town and with gauchos living in remote valleys, a life virtually unchanged in the last century. Through working with these rural estancias he has built a trail that follows the watershed loop from the Northern Patagonia Ice Field to the Baker River. In walking up windswept valleys, crossing a major glacier, passing active glacier research sites, and ending at Sol de Mayo, his working ranch 35km from the nearest road, guests get a deep experience of “real” Patagonia.

It is immediately clear that Jonathan is not interested in standard tourism development. His trips are limited to six guests at a time and the infrastructure is minimal to give guests a real experience interacting with the beauty and the challenges of Patagonia. He works with scientists to support cutting edge research in geology and ecology, and works with education groups to bring students into the mountains to learn about glaciers and the beginnings of watersheds.

Just across the Rio Baker valley from the Aysen Glacier Trail is the Future Patagonia National Park. This former estancia, Valle Chacabuco, was purchased by Kris Tompkins and the organization Conservacion Patagonica. They have been removing the fences and ranch infrastructure to restore native habitat and building up infrastructure to turn it over to the Chilean government as a national park. A huge undertaking, and one that is faced with many difficulties, from public acceptance to having no precedent for restoring Patagonian grasslans. They are working on developing a volunteer program to get visitors, mostly Chileans, involved in the restoration of the park with the hope that in the future these people will be advocates for it’s preservation. Their goal is to get this park to be as large of a draw as Torres del Paine, creating jobs in the local economy in a way that does not depend on resource extraction.

This all is set in a background of the recent protests in the Aysen Region of Chile where people are protesting about a wide range of things from the development of international fishing and the proposed construction of five major dams to high gas prices. Things are changing in Aysen and clearly the residents do not like how they are changing.

How does this all fit together? In a region with significant natural resources, it either faces continued development of hydroelectric dams, mines, tree plantations, and salmon farming or it needs to figure out a more sustainable way to contribute to the economy of Chile. An alternative vision to an economy based on resource extraction would be an economy based on resource enjoyment. By developing infrastructure to allow large scale tourism, the Aysen region has the potential to become one of the most popular areas in Chile and Argentina.While that would require sacrificing the quiet nature of the region, people will have to decide.

We all share a future together. How do we want that future to be?

*Note about photographs – You may notice JB watermarks appearing on photographs throughout this site. I’m not trying to prevent people from enjoying my work, I’ve just had some issues with photo rights. Please contact me at jonathan.at.alpineamericas.com if you are interested in purchasing prints of any of these photos.

When you arrive in a town and the first things people tell you about are how they’ve never seen so much good weather, how the trees are turning fall colors months early because it is so dry, how the approach to the Torre valley that climbers have been using for half a century is too dangerous to continue using because the glacier is receding, there is no doubt about the changes. People who spend their time in the mountains, who make their living in the mountains see it every day. There is no doubt.

Yet for the people who do not interact with these landscapes, it is easy to keep thinking that nothing has changed. The changes are more subtle. More fights over water rights, ski areas only having fake snow into late January, and restrictions on when people can water their lawns. The real question is how to connect people with these changes in a way that they understand. At Alpine of the Americas Project we see repeat photography not only as a useful tool for scientific research, but also as an extremely powerful way of communicating these changes to people who don’t see it for themselves. In a world that relies heavily on visual communication, we hope that showing people the huge changes that are occurring in alpine areas will contribute to people taking ownership for our collective impacts.

The last few weeks in El Chalten, Argentina, has been an interesting experience in contrasts. The town is nestled at the base of the Fitz Roy group of mountains. The town has only been in existence for 25 years and was established to lay claim to land that both Argentina and Chile say they own. While the economy of the town is based on taking people out into the mountains to experience the spectacular natural beauty, the town itself has a lot to figure out. Trash is dumped in a big open pile by the river, and four generators run full blast day and night to power the town. The town has no plan for development and is facing the pressure of rapidly increasing tourism and development. As with any time a community faces rapid changes, whether it is a small mountain town or a global community, they need to come together and decide what they want and what action they need to take.

We are currently focusing on writing a handful of grants for the American Alpine Club and National Geographic to secure funding for another year of this project. We’ve also been focusing on getting other people out repeating photographs for us. The photo above is of the road near El Chalten, which is now a paved two lane highway. Hopefully a few Canadian cyclists will be able to get this photo. In the mean time, be well.

Our first experience in the Andino verdad has been an incredible trip up Mount Tronador. As with any of our repeat photography trips we started with a stack of photos printed in black and white and ended up with a deeper understanding of a place.

Cierro Tronador is a large volcano hidden behind the mountains near Bariloche, Argentina. On our first day on the mountain we climbed above Refugio Otto Meiling toward a beautiful ridge called Lamotte. A short hike obtains this ridge giving the spectator wonderful views of two of Tronador’s three summits. From this vantage it is easy to appreciate the former scale of these incredible glaciers that still pour off this volcanoes flanks. Here, we repeated two historic photos. After a short jaunt to a nearby summit to preview our next two adventures, we descended back to the refugio for a great New Years celebration with friends.

On our second day, we climbed Cierro Constitucion. Despite the bushwhacking through lenga bush and tabanos, or horseflies, we were able to summit and take one of our best historic repeat photos to date. Alberto M. de Agostini, in some ways the Ansel Adams of the Andes, took this photo of Tronador´s Frias Glacier from the summit of Constitucion in 1949. These photos show the most startling changes we’ve witnessed so far. Our repeat photo reveals an incredible amount of retreat and thinning. Where there were once huge icefalls, there are now rivers, lakes, and breathtaking waterfalls.

Our most difficult decision was to forgo taking our oldest photos. We decided to not climb to Cierro Interncional where these photos were taken from because the temperatures were unusually warm at night and the glacier surface was not freezing. This meant that the loose volcanic rocks were free to crumble off of the summits to the glacier paths below. Instead we chose to climb Pico Argentino, since it had far less rock fall danger. We were living our dreams, celebrating the sunrise as we welcomed the spirit of adventure and gave our thoughts to Travis Lizotte, whose life was taken very near our route.

Phase two is now complete. Next, we are setting out for Chile, where a whole new adventure awaits: to better understand and articulate the deep and intricate relationships between glaciers, people, and dams.

Cierro Tronador is the heart of our Andes adventure. Our first steps into the Patagonian wilderness will be toward the mountain that took the life of our friend and fellow Outward Bound instructor Travis Lizotte. We dedicate this next portion to celebrate his life and spirit. In his life he opened his heart to so many people, showing and creating the kindness possible in humanity. He left a legacy that guides how we may trod our own path giving, and in turn, receiving.

We celebrate Travis and heed the insight of our Canadian friend and experienced guide, Lorenzo. Lorenzo told us how many of his clients came to the mountains expecting suffering, so they suffered. On Aconcagua and in the Himalayas, Lorenzo observed that people who approached a mountain with humility and compassion experienced less of a battle and more of a salutation. Travis approached life with similar compassion and we believe it is no coincidence that he lived a life rich in happiness and community.

We hope to approach Tronador with the same open heart and compassion that Travis lived by. We celebrate Travis’ life as we have and will celebrate the life of Matthew Baxter III. These two inspirational men guide our own interpersonal connections with people we are close to and they inspire us to generate strong bonds among the people outside our communities.

We finally finished the film from our adventure through the high Sierra this past summer just in time for the El Portal Travel Series show. Check it out.

This represents the culmination of an interesting process of trying to transform my skills as a still photographer into the world of motion. I learned a few new software programs, a whole new way of telling a story, and look forward to learning more. I love hearing feedback as to what works and what doesn’t for you so I can improve my storytelling. Stay tuned for the other outcomes of our trip this past summer, such as a photo database and maps.

We are currently laying the groundwork and plans for our South America portion of the trip, starting in Santiago, Chile in December. We’ve received really positive support from many researchers, guides, and water advocates working in Patagonia and are tremendously excited for this trip.

We are ice in the shadows.

We are the flowers in bloom.

So we walked on. There is no end.

So it is.

We’re in Bishop today picking up our resupply boxes from the post office, doing laundry, eating lots, and using internet at the Library. Coming down from the mountains after a long time always feels like cultre shock, and this time is no different. We have become accustomed to the wild and it’s suprising to be able to smell laundry detergent on hikers at the trailhead from 40 ft away.

So far this portion of our journey has beeen a great success. Yesterday we found and repeated six historic USGS photographs, crossed a 12,000 foot pass, and traveled 8 miles off trail. All after a relaxing morning and we still had plenty of time to stretch, write, draw, and relax watching sunset on Mt. Humphreys when we got into camp.

The next section between Bishop and Mammoth is a section of the Sierra none of us have traveled before and we are excited to get into the rythm of moving every day again. Soon you will also get to see the results of our travels as we process and put together the photos and viedo.

Close your eyes. Imagine what it might feel like to be standing on a high ridge of windswept granite surrounded by a vast sea of rugged peaks and deep shadowed valleys. Alpine lakes glimmer in every direction and patches of white snow fill in the shadowed areas between the light grey granite. How do you even begin getting to a place like this? What does it take?

For us it has taken months of planning, countless hours pouring over maps, talking with scientists, researching, testing gear, organizing food, and countless other details. Yet today, we head out on trail. The mountains are snowy, the conditions are challenging for alpine travel, but we feel confident and have our gear and food organized. Twenty six days from now we will have completed this first expedition and will be returning with photos, data, and experience.

Our itinerary:

July 19 – 24 : Mineral King to Roads End in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

July 24 – 31 : Mineral King to Palisades

August 1 – 8 : Palisades to Evolution Basin

August 8 – 12 : Evolution Basin to Reds Meadow

August 13-15 : Reds Meadow to Tuolumne Meadows

We are excited for the mountains and journey ahead and will be sharing our experiences when we return.